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Gut Reaction: Dodgers 8, Mets 0 (8/6/17)

The Mets and Dodgers have played against each other for 55 years before this season and L.A. had never swept them. Well, the 56th year apparently is the charm, as the Dodgers shut out the Mets, 8-0, Sunday night to complete the seven-game series sweep.

The game was moved to the national ESPN game, which combined with our lack of success against the Dodgers and our general dismal performance on Sundays made this game a virtual lock for a loss.

Dodgers jumped on top early without the aid of a homer but reverted to their long ball ways against the Mets with two moon shots. Steven Matz gave up one to Justin Turner and Josh Smoker gave up one to lefty Cody Bellinger, the 12th extra-base hit he’s allowed against a LHB this season. Remind me again why he has a roster spot? His ERA now stands at 7.32 for the year.

Travis d’Arnaud had the only hit in the game for the Mets. Erik Goeddel retired both batters he faced, including one strikeout. He now has 17 Ks in 15 IP this year for the Mets. Yep, those were the team’s highlights in the game.

“It’s shocking. This guy’s got way too good of stuff,” Mets manager Terry Collins said of Matz’s recent struggles. He has a 11.03 ERA in the last 30 days. The Mets must come to the realization that they must add better starting pitchers to the rotation this winter. These pitchers with “good stuff” may be best suited for the bullpen. They could replace Smoker and his 7.32 ERA in the 2018 bullpen. Edgin had a 3.65 ERA (and a 1.93 ERA in the past month) when he was DFA’d.
One hit only last night. If you look at the past 30 days, only Conforto, Flores and Bruce have OPS above 800. No pitching and no hitting and 11 games under 500. The Mets play like a team that has packed it in.

One other thing about the Dodgers: youth! Not much talent at the upper reaches of the Mets farm, and below that: too soon to tell.

And the other big thing: payroll! Blogs and media and fans have given Wilpons a free pass on this one, content that he’s somewhere in the middle of MLB payrolls. He’s trying! Well, not really, and not in a NY market. Mets need to significantly raise payroll.

Lot’s of young, on-field positional talent for LA. Pederson in CF is a thoroughly “modern” player–225 BA with a 350 OBP and 800 OPS…25 years old in CF. Pretty nice player!!! He’s an afterthought with Bellinger and Seager and Puig and…… you get the idea.

Jimmy, I’ve been hesitant to join you in jumping out against the Mets Positional Youth, but I do now openly question a future direction for Cheech and Nimmo. Granted, Smith and Rosario are in the Check Out Line now, but the rest of the positional prospects are too far away for anything beyond giddy hopefulness…Alonzo, Giminez, etc. Additionally, their young vets (Flores, d’Arnaud, TJ, ) are mostly Platoon guys who are too flawed to be anchors. Thank Goodness for Conforto!!!!

Obviously, the young pitching is in Ruins…and they have no real position to replace it, beyond just giving up on 2-3 of them. It’s a really bad combination of Failure to Launch and Crash/Burn.

The Young pitchers were supposed to be rising Stars, by now— and the transition to young everyday, “cheap” positional players was to be in full force…with the Pitchers starting a “get paid” cycle.

It will be a challenging task for any the GM…… the arms could recover to 95-105 wins….or they could roll down to 70 in 2018. Amazing Mets !!!…Amazing Mess!!!!